There are hundreds of species of crayfish in America. New species are frequently discovered, but it is amazing that a large and distinctive species has been overlooked for so long.
Louisiana Crayfish
The Louisiana Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) is farmed and caught commercially in America, and 'Louisiana crawfish boils' are famous.
This species is also famous (or infamous!) as a carrier of 'Crayfish Plague' in Europe where it is a very successful invasive species – it has driven the European Crayfish (Astacus astacus) to the brink of extinction because it is able to live in stagnant water and can walk across dry land to find a new home.
Freshwater biologists have been studying American crayfish for years, so it is strange (and worrying) that a very large and distinctive species has just been discovered.
New Crayfish in Tennessee and Alabama
In 2009 someone photographed a strange crayfish in Shoal Creek (Tennessee), and it eventually came to the attention of two freshwater biologists (Christopher Taylor and Guenter Schuster).
- Taylor and Schuster thought it was probably the bottlebrush crayfish (Barbicambarus cornutus), but they decided to have a look anyway. What they discovered surprised them – a new type of crayfish the size of a lobster, and with very distinctive 'bearded setae' on the antennae.
- DNA analysis showed that it is a new species – 'the giant crayfish of Shoal Creek' – and it has been named Barbicambarus simmonsi.
It is not surprising when new species of animal are discovered in remote habitats, or when detailed DNA studies show very similar looking animals to be distinct species. What is surprising is the discovery of a large new species in a habitat that has been well studied for a long time.
As Schuster says: "We spend millions of dollars every year on federal grants to send biologists to the Amazon, to Southeast Asia – all over the world looking for and studying the biodiversity of those regions, but ... there are still lots of areas right here in the U.S. that need to be explored."
Climates are changing, and, if we are to understand the effects this is having on habitats it is important to have accurate and complete knowledge of the current situation. It is important to know what lives where at present (baseline data) if future changes in species distribution are to be recognised.
The fact that a large animal like this new species of crayfish has not been noticed before gives cause for concern.
References:
'Whopping crayfish species stayed hidden for decades', New Scientist, January 2011
'... a new crayfish of the genus Barbicambarus ...', Taylor and Schuster, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 2010.
